DUP supporters must be munching their Wheatabix this morning and wondering what sin from their past deserves the punishment they are currently undergoing.
For a start, there’s that poll. Yes, yes, Virginia, the only poll that really counts is the one on election day – but opinion polls can give you an indication of what way things are heading. And if you’re a DUP supporter, things are on their way to hell in a hand-cart.
The poll tells us that Sinn Féin is on 25% of the populace, while its partner in government the DUP is on 16%. And not only have Sinn Féin got a 9% lead on their Executive partners, the Alliance Party is also on 16%. In other words, take your eye off the ball for a second, DUP, and you’ll be shoved into third place. Not that the Alliance Party should be dancing in the streets either. The research shows that the people abandoning the DUP are going, not to the Alliance party, but to Jim Allister’s TUV. He’s on 11%.
What does that suggest? It suggests that Edwin Poots is not seen as being sufficiently right-wing, when placed alongside Jim Allister. Yes, I know that seems crazy – after all, Poots was elected because Arlene Foster wasn’t right-wing enough, nor was Jeffrey Donaldson. In short, the DUP is hurtling to the right at a time when the salvation of the stateen depends on the DUP winning more Croppy votes. They are following, with conscientious vigour, the one path that will guarantee no nationalist/republican would dream of giving them a vote.
And did you see last week’s The View on B(ritish)BC last week? In it, journalist Gareth Gordon said that the DUP are hopelessly split and are suffering from deep wounds that “will be very very difficult to heal”. Arlene Foster’s supporters, he suggested, will neither forget nor forgive her political assassination. Listening to phone-ins, Gareth continued, you heard the word “despicable” being used about the toppling of Arlene.
Then The View produced Brenda Hale, who had been a DUP MLA for six years. Boy, did she kick the door down:
“It’s going to be very hard to repair the damage and disillusionment felt by the party members who are also split on this leadership vote. Arlene was undermined. There was backroom politics. When people are looking for someone to vote for, they’ll want someone with honour and integrity and honesty; and backroom chats and political assassination are not the way forward for NI. …On the ground, people are very concerned and angry at the way all of this has been done. The DUP as it stands now is not a party that I could return to. I feel now there will be an oppressive and controlling presence at Parliament Buildings.”
Then Ben Lowry of the Newsletter read the first bit of Peter Robinson’s column for the next day. “Having left her [Arlene] humiliated, they now want to leave her as road-kill. I think the difficulties facing unionism are immense”.
To say that the DUP is tearing lumps out of itself would be an understatement. A policeman’s lot may not be a happy one, but compared to the DUP, he’s in clover.
Comments are closed.